


Directional apostrophes

by Elf (Elfwreck)



Category: No Fandom
Genre: Advertising, Fandom, Gen, Meta, Nonfiction, fic archives, grammar, punctuation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-02
Updated: 2011-10-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:33:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23152540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elfwreck/pseuds/Elf
Summary: Wherein Elf contemplates punctuation and the commercialization of fandom.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 1
Collections: March Meta Matters Challenge





	Directional apostrophes

I have approximately one punctuation peeve. (Maybe I have lots, but only one I'm noticing today.) I don't mind quotes in-or-out of final sentence punctuation; I don't care whether there are spaces around emdashes or ellipses (although I've researched these things to be able to beta them "properly"); I don't even mind ellipses with four or seven or twenty-three dots for emphasis, as long as they don't eat entire paragraphs. I don't mind multiple exclamation points. I know the differences between parentheses and brackets, but don't care if writers do. Apostrophes used for plurals sometimes make me cringe, but not always; only when I first think they're possessives. Same for its/it's: I only care if the meaning was thrown off. Emdash vs colon: don't care. Comma instead of semicolon: used sparingly, doesn't bother me.

But if you're going to use "smart quotes," and especially smart _single_ quotes, GET THE DIRECTION RIGHT.

Word's auto-formatting does this for apostrophes inside of words. If you type don't or can't or I'll, it comes back with

**don’t can’t nbsp; I’ll**

and so on. And if you type, "Robin let out a low whistle, followed by 'Holy foreplay, Batman,' when he walked in on Bruce and Selina," Word will nicely give you

**‘Holy foreplay, Batman,’**

with both the quotes facing the correct direction. However, if you should mention events in the '70s, or that 'Twas the worst of times, or that you don't remember those times at all 'cause you were high on something green or powdered or gelatinous for most of them... Word will spit back

**‘70s ‘Twas ‘cause**

instead of **’70s ’Twas ’cause** like it should, because Word thinks that apostrophes after a space should face the letter following, not the space. This bugs me. Consistently. Always. The apostrophe, if it's directional, is supposed to face _the missing letters_ when it's used in contractions. I shouldn't think it's the start of a subquote.

"Ship," a boat, gets no apostrophe. "'Ship," a fannish term short for "relationship" and connected to a lot of obvious puns, gets an apostrophe... that should face _out_.

When you say that my

**[‘ship has come in!](http://www.fanfic.me) **

as your front-page tagline, USE THE RIGHT PUNCTUATION ... or I'll know that you don't have a SPAG proofreader on staff, don't care about the fine details of writing protocols, and don't take fanfic seriously as a creative art that can require discipline and dedication.

Are there other errors in the promo materials? Don't know; don't care. This is the one that bugs me. I know, because fandom grammarnistas are not a tiny group, that I'm not the only one this bothers. I also know that for each other error they have, there's someone in fandom for whom that's the ultimate grammar sin. And for every careless bit of webdesign, there's someone for whom that's an admission of sloppy incompetence in the areas they most care about.

For homemade fansites run for love? I'll tolerate a lot of sloppiness. People who build sites for their favorite tiny ’ship or their three friends can be careless & only focus on what's important to them. However, people offering a platform for "all of fandom," people who want to make _serious money_ at this game, need to be aware of the pet peeves of the target membership that they want to pay their bills.

I don't object to the plan of "make money off fandom." I attend a couple of conventions every year, and I happily throw money at the vendors who are trying to make money off fandom. I even happily throw money at mega-corporations who are trying to make money off fandom; they keep making movies and tv shows and books I want. The whole Cthulhu revival exists because some smart boy decided that he could make money off the fandom of an obscure horror author, and bought the rights to market a game based on it. Yay.

But if you're planning on getting paid for your fanac ... get a proofreader. Because what I'll tolerate from ventures of love and obsession is a lot broader than what I'll tolerate from people who want my money. And I know I'm not alone in that, either.

(Background details at [](https://watersword.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**watersword**](https://watersword.dreamwidth.org/) 's [adventures in detective work](http://watersword.dreamwidth.org/623048.html) post.)

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted at <http://elf.dreamwidth.org/463190.html>, where there are comments.


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